First Hand - Bedtime Stories

Television (Full Length) – 1995

First Hand was a series of mid 1990s documentaries made for TVNZ. Newbie filmmakers were armed with consumer cameras, aiming to capture “natural human behaviour” with the new technology and minimal crew. This edition, directed by David Ambler, profiles 23-year-old Newstalk ZB late-night talkback host Mike Yardley, and introduces regular callers from his nationwide audience of 150,000: service station worker Lucas channels Oprah, Petone radio poet George rhymes about detached organs, and Merle dances to an organist. Radio veteran Marcus Lush narrates.

He's 23 and in the most unsought after job in radio: he's Mike Yardley, host of ZB midnight to dawn talkback. Every weeknight his audience of elderly insomniacs, the worried and night workers turn to him for conversation and counsel.
– Narrator Marcus Lush